It Can't Happen Here
by lovetheblazer
Summary: Since the moment that the first shot had rung out, Blaine had only one thought: Kurt. What happens when a shooter breaches McKinley High? Mainly Klaine, with a little Finchel and Brittana. Lots of hurt/comfort and angst. Will everyone make it out alive?
1. Silence in the Library

**This story has been banging around in my head for awhile now, but I've been resistant to writing it down because a Glee school shooting fic just seems cliched and overly dramatic, not to mention the fact that I've already got way too many WIP fics to finish at the moment. But this story keeps clamoring around in my brain making itself known in various ways and screaming for attention, so I thought I'd jot down a mini ficlet from this bigger story brewing in my head. This would be a climactic scene from Chapter 2 or 3 of the larger story if I decided to expand it. Read and tell me what you think? Pretty please?**

**Warnings: A little profanity and obviously some violence as this is the aftermath of a school shooting, but nothing overt in this ficlet. Mainly a Klaine fic, but some small hints of Finchel and Brittana. Based on the Glee universe and characters, but no major spoilers.** **Hurt/comfort and angst abound. 772 words. **

Blaine left Finn attending to Rachel's wounded leg and rounded the corner of the library shelves as quietly as possible, his heart practically pounding out of his chest with fear for Kurt. He knew Kurt had headed into the library less than 20 minutes ago, only minutes before the as yet unidentified shooter had started his rampage. Blaine had asked Rachel and Santana and anyone else he had encountered since the first shots rang out, but no one had seen Kurt leave the library or had so much as seen a glimpse of his bright plum sweater or heard the faint trill of his distinctive high pitched voice.

Blaine and Finn had either stupidly or bravely decided that they would search for Kurt and Rachel once they'd been informed of the shooting. They'd both crept down the hall as stealthily as possible, lock-down be damned, and had been informed by a random hockey player crouched behind a bank of lockers that the shooter had just exited the library and was headed towards the cafeteria. Blaine's stomach had immediately clenched in fear as he remembered the last words Kurt had spoken to him.

"I need to drop off a book in the library," Kurt had said, clutching the biography of Patti Lupone. "Meet you in the choir room?" Blaine had smiled vacantly, slightly distracted by the way in which Kurt's skinny jeans cupped the angles of his ass as he bent down to pick up his backpack. He'd simply nodded and given Kurt a gentle squeeze to the shoulder, a heteronormative variation of the gestures they used to express their affection in private, since Blaine was determined that he would not allow his presence at McKinley to put Kurt in harm's way from bullying or gay bashing. And just like that, Kurt was gone. It was only minutes later that the first shots had rung out. If Blaine had known... If only he'd... If Kurt was... Blaine stopped and shook his head, unable to complete those sentences, even in his own mind.

Blaine peered down yet another row of abandoned bookshelves, still seeing no sign of Kurt. He wanted to believe with all his heart that Kurt was safely waiting in another room or had managed to tuck himself into a quiet corner of the library, safe and sound. But the silence in the library was deafening. Blaine knew that the shooter had been in here. People had been hurt, possibly even killed in here. He shuddered as he remembered stepping over Azimio's bleeding and lifeless body. A Cheerio he didn't recognize was holding a sweater against the jock's bleeding chest, but Blaine hadn't been sure if the football player was alive or dead. And Rachel, while not gravely injured, was currently immobolized thanks to a wound to her upper thigh, terrified but also grateful that she was still alive to tell the tale of what they'd experienced so far. And terrifingly, she'd also not seen or heard anything from Kurt since the first shots rang out.

Blaine neared the end of the second to last row of bookshelves, his mouth going dry and his pulse pounding loud enough to be audible in his own ears. He'd hastily scanned the entire library, save for this last row of shelving. If Kurt wasn't here, then... Well, then Blaine didn't know where he could be or if he was safe. As Blaine prepared to round the corner, he felt his heart drop with sickening recognition. He didn't know why, but in that moment, he just _knew. _When he rounded that corner, he was going to see his boyfriend. Hopefully alive and unharmed.

With a deep breath, he stepped around the corner, his eyes immediately scanning the row of shelving for any sign of his boyfriend. In the heartbeat of a moment that it took his eyes to find and register the sight before him, he felt the whole world shift on its axis. Two thirds of the way down the aisle, slumped against the lower shelves in a semi-seated position lay the rumpled, pale, still, and bleeding form of his boyfriend.

Blaine was on his knees beside him at once, his hands trailing everywhere: up and down Kurt's body in panicked, frantic movements, never stopping in one location for more than a fraction of a second. Blaine couldn't talk or breathe or think until he felt the slight, barely perceptible movement of Kurt's chest as he exhaled a shaky, unsteady breath. Tears pricked Blaine's eyes as his world came back together with the miracle of that single, monumental gesture. "Kurt?" Blaine gasped.

**I don't know, guys... What do you think? Is it worth continuing? Like I said, this has been my headcanon for a long time now, so I've got chapters worth of material in my head begging to be let out, but I'm still...hesitant. However, I'm willing to let the headcanon take over and write this story if there are people here who want to read it. Should this become a full-on story? I'll let you decide. Either way, I figure it is good writing and drabble practice. **


	2. Blink

**Author's Note: Wow, okay I totally wasn't expecting that big of a response to my little ficlet, but between Tumblr and Fanfiction, people have made it very clear that they want me to continue. Since I am a slave to my readers and my headcanon, I'm going to keep going. I want to try to do something slightly different with this story. I tend to write really long, angsty stories with chapters that are up to 9,000 words each and sometimes take weeks to post. That's typically my process. But since this story has been hanging out in my head for months now and I have a really good idea of where it is going, so I'm going to do short updates more frequently. My goal is to update at least once every 48 hours and shoot for each chapter to be under 2,000 words. Hopefully I can keep up that pace for this story and keep it interesting and suspenseful as we go along.**

**As I mentioned in the author's note for the first chapter (which I've renamed Silence in the Library for further reference), the small ficlet I first posted probably would have been situated as chapter 2 or 3 in the larger story. But I don't want to mess up the plot momentum I have going at the moment, so I'll cover the pre-event shootings and the experiences of other characters like Rachel, Finn, Santana, & Brittany as flash-backs throughout the story as it seems appropriate. Stick around after this chapter as I have a few questions for you about upcoming plot details and characters that you want to hear more from. As always, thank you for reading and being such an encouraging community!**

"Kurt?" Blaine called tentatively. Blaine's pulse was thudding dully in his ears as he waited for any small signs of life from the injured boy in front of him. For a moment, Blaine had been sure that he was too late, that Kurt was beyond saving. But his whole world had been made right again when he'd heard the slight inhalation of Kurt's unsteady breathing. Kurt was alive. For now.

Blaine's persistence was rewarded by another gasp, slightly louder this time and the smallest of twitches as Kurt's eyebrows drew down slightly in pain. Blaine's hands were all over Kurt at once. Cupping his cheek, in his hair, smoothing across his damp brow, all the while pleading, begging for Kurt to respond.

"Kurt...please. Oh Kurt, oh god...just...please, Kurt. I need...Kurt, you have to... Oh god, Kurt," Blaine choked out as tears poured down his cheeks unoticed. In that moment, the whole school could have collapsed around Blaine and Kurt and Blaine would have remembered none of it, save for the tiniest flicker of expression that crossed Kurt's face. Blaine's hands finally stilled as he settled for taking Kurt's face in both of his hands, fingers smoothing across Kurt's cheeks with whisper-light strokes as he begged him to open his eyes.

Again, Blaine's touch was rewarded when Kurt made a small sound, somewhere between a whimper and a groan. Kurt's eyes were still tightly closed, but Blaine could see that his eyes were moving beneath Kurt's pale, almost bruised-looking eyelids as he seemingly searched for something. Or someone. Blaine pleaded with Kurt, louder and more insistent this time as his panic threatened to overcome him. "Kurt please... Honey, look at me. Open your eyes, Kurt. C'mon baby. Please... Oh Kurt, please..."

Blaine was made whole again as Kurt blinked once, twice in the dim light of the library stacks before slowly gazing up at Blaine with an unreadable expression on his face. Blaine's hands were once again flying everywhere as he struggled to simultaneously physically reassure Kurt and assess his injuries. He first bent to kiss Kurt's forehead before straightening back to gaze at Kurt's face, stroking his cheek gently with one hand while the other traced patterns across his temple as he brushed back a damp lock of Kurt's hair.

"Kurt? Hi...hey honey...I'm here. Oh Kurt... it's going to be okay. Just..." Blaine's voice broke as he tried to find the right words to reassure his boyfriend. The look Kurt was giving Blaine seemed to reach inside of him and made him ache with the need to make Kurt okay. To hold Kurt is in his arm and take away all of his pain. The pain in Kurt's eyes was enough to make Blaine feel physically ill, but worse still was the fear and hopelessness clearly reflected in Kurt's eyes. "Kurt..." Blaine started again, but was interrupted by the sound of Kurt's voice, hoarse, tremulous, and oh so broken, but Kurt's nonetheless.

"Blaine..." Kurt whispered. "I...he...oh god, B-b-bl-aine, he shot...me."

Blaine swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat, trying with all his strength to be the boyfriend Kurt needed at the moment. Someone strong, brave, reassuring, and calming. "Shh, I know Kurt. I know, sweetheart. It's going to be okay, though. We're...I'm going to get you out of here. I'm going to...get you to the hospital...soon, alright? Just hang on, Kurt... Please Kurt, just hang on."

Kurt's eyes fluttered closed again momentarily as he struggled to draw a deep breath and fight against the gnawing blackness that was lurking at the corners of his vision. He was so cold and scared and it just hurt so damn much that sleep seemed like a relief at the moment. But Blaine wasn't there when Kurt slept and there was something terrifying about the possibility of getting stuck in the blackness and not being able to find his way back out again. What if he couldn't find his way back to Blaine? Kurt forced his eyes open again at the thought and gazed back into Blaine's deep hazel eyes. Eyes that were so filled with fear, pain, worry, and love that it made Kurt dizzy to look at him for more than a second. Kurt glanced down at his body, trying hard not to see the spreading bloodstain across his chest, trying hard not to feel the warmth and stickiness of the blood pouring across his shoulder and side, and most of all trying hard not to smell the pungent stench of copper as his life slowly bled out of him and onto the cheap polyester carpeting on which he was currently resting.

Suddenly a horrifying thought crossed Kurt's conscious mind and he was struggling to sit up straighter and grab Blaine's attention. "B-Bl-aine...he...he's still...out of there. He...he might see...you. Got to...hide. Or he...he'll shoot...you...too," Kurt gasped out panickedly. Kurt wanted nothing more than to curl into Blaine's arms and feel safe and more importantly, to know that he was not alone. But the thought of Blaine hurt...or worse was enough to help Kurt ward off his selfish thoughts and to think of his boyfriend's safety instead.

Blaine watched worriedly as Kurt started to struggle, trying hard to move...to say something that seemed incredibly _important_ to Kurt. He listened carefully as Kurt started to gasp out his demands, namely that Blaine think of his own safety first. Blaine felt his eyes fill with tears again when he realized what Kurt was asking, what Kurt was worrying about even as he lay bleeding on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest. Blaine. Kurt wasn't worried about himself, but only the safety of his boyfriend. If that wasn't love, Blaine wasn't sure what was.

Blaine started speaking, stumbling over his words in an attempt to reassure Kurt. "No...shh, Kurt. We're okay. Finn and I checked to be sure that the shooter was gone and then we...we barricaded ourselves in the library. The shooter isn't getting back in. You're safe, Kurt. You're safe."

Blaine watched Kurt carefully as his eyes widened in recognition, a single tear tracking down his cheek as he took in what had Blaine had just said. As Blaine watched, all of the breath and fight went out of Kurt in a whoosh of air and he slowly slid towards the floor, his descent to the ground stopped only by Blaine's hands as he directed Kurt's upper body to rest against his shoulder. "Kurt? Baby? Oh god...Kurt, stay with me. Just please Kurt...stay with me, okay?" Blaine's voice echoed hollowly through the nearly empty library. The silence was nearly deafening, save for Blaine's harsh breath as he waited, hoped, prayed for another sign from Kurt. But none came.

**End Chapter Note: Yes, yes...I know. Evil cliffhangers are something of a particular speciality of mine. Does it help if I promise not to kill off Kurt? Because I would never do that to my Klaine. But I can't promise that everyone will make it through this story alive and well. I've got an idea of who the shooter is, but I'm open to your hypotheses and/or requests. One note: it's not Karofsky. I know that he and Kurt have somewhat of a violent past, but the Karofsky of my Glee universe is not capable of that kind of violence. But I'm definitely open to other suggestions. Also, what characters do you want to see in upcoming chapters? There will definitely be more Rachel/Finn in the next few chapters and some mild Finchel and Hummelberry. But are their other characters you want me to check in on? I love getting feedback from you dear readers. If I'm going to stick to this schedule of posting every 1-2 days, I'm definitely going to need lots of encouragement from all of you :) Thanks for reading so far. **


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